504

Written by Peter Li-Chang Kuo

(Chinese)

Some call May 4th "the Day of Amnesty," and it's quite fitting.

While organizing my lecture notes these past few days, I offen came across a photo of someone who fabricated a sophisticated "eyelet" sample and delivered it to Avnet Taiwan Ltd., an American company. He looked like a child—yet at 13, he had to support eight others—including two patients.

Fig 1: Li-Chang Kuo's PTH product at age 13.

Avnet Taiwan Ltd.'s parent company was a NYSE-listed company, well aware of American corporate processes—signing a contract, making advanced payment, and then carrying out the agreed-upon work. However, in November 1966, they asked for a product without any explanation. I produced a sample for them within two days, but then spent over a month making dozens of revisions, and then demanded I create a detailed, illustrated acceptance letter "Approval Sheet" —without paying a single penny during this period.

No. 45, Chong-An Street, North District, Tainan City, is a mud-brick house. My grandmother, whose leg was broken by the police, lies in a small room to the left of the entrance for easy care. The bed, after a long time, emits an odor. When Mr. Lane, the president of a global electronics company, first visited, he smelled this odor and had his translator ask me. I told him the truth: they were fully aware of my financial difficulties, yet they still hadn't paid a single penny to continue exploiting me.

Although I have 500 customers in Tainan, many buy only a lot (144 pieces) at a time. Even working hard for a whole month, I can't earn back 1,000 NT dollars; it's simply not profitable. Every night before bed, I write on a piece of paper: "If there is a God, please bring me a decent customer!" I'm certain that Mr. Lane's appearance was a divine intervention.

Mr. Lane, in Arizona, saw an investment advertisement—a girl on a bicycle with a bag of cash hanging from the handlebars, with the caption: "Welcome to invest in Taiwan." This inspired him to come to Taiwan from the United States.

After traveling all over Taiwan for more than half a year, he couldn't find anyone capable of making the "Eyelet" he mentioned. One day, passing a hardware store, he asked his translator to stop and go in to inquire. He heard there was a kid at the Kuo-Min Market who could make "Eyelet," so he went from the Kuo-Min Market, Kaohsiung  to the Tainan's Yamuliao Market, and finally found me on Chong-An Street — I was only 139 centimeters tall at the time. After I clarified the dimensions, I gave him a sample within two days from nothing.

However, the next month involved dozens of revisions, completely disrupting my ability to earn a living for my family. So, I had to work day and night. The biggest pressure came from A-Jin (my mother), who cursed every day: "Useless four-legged brat, dreaming of doing business with Americans! Before he even got started, his testicles were ripped off!" Mr. Lane saw all this but didn't say a word. Finally, I got my first order. Their engineer, surnamed Wang, asked me if I knew the contents of the densely written terms in size 6 font at the back of the order. He said if even one word said "free," they wouldn't have to pay me.

I was horrified upon hearing this! I quickly grabbed the English punctuation marks given to me by Mr. Chiu Sen-Ran (a teacher) and checked them. I only felt somewhat relieved after not finding the word "free." However, it wasn't until after delivery and receiving payment that I finally felt at ease. I even went to a photography studio next to the statue to take this picture, which became a historical record of the beginning of Taiwan's precision industry.

The translator surnamed Wu continued to try to persuade A-Jin, saying, "Lan-zai (Mr. Lane) couldn't find anyone else to do it, so he had no choice but to place the order with you." A-Jin, who was spending the money lavishly, immediately turned around and cursed me again.

After careful consideration, I still believed that "I had to gamble with human nature"—because I believed that no one in the world could, without taking a single penny, conjure up a sample for him out of thin air within two days—it's completely impossible in terms of physical logic.

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